The present disclosure relates generally to controlling operation of a wind turbine, and more specifically, to controlling operation of a floating wind turbine in response to changes in tower inclination.
Wind turbine generators utilize wind energy to produce electrical power. Wind turbine generators typically include a rotor having multiple blades that transform wind energy into rotational motion of a drive shaft, which in turn is utilized to drive an electrical generator to produce electrical power. Each of the multiple blades may be pitched to increase or decrease the rotational speed of the rotor. A power output of a wind turbine generator increases with wind speed until the wind speed reaches a rated wind speed for the turbine.
Typically, the wind turbine generator is positioned atop a vertical support tower, which is securely fixed to a surface, for example, land in a wind turbine field. Such an instillation maintains the rotor perpendicular to the ground. The wind turbine generator is rotatably mounted to the support tower such that the rotor may be rotated relative to the tower to maintain a perpendicular relationship between the rotor blades and the wind direction. Positioning wind turbine generators offshore enables the capture of wind energy from winds that are typically higher than winds over land. Offshore wind turbine generators typically include a tower securely fixed to a seabed in a similar manner to land-based wind turbine generators. For example, a portion of the tower may be buried within the seabed or coupled to a foundation buried within the seabed such that the tower is held in an upright position, perpendicular to a surface of the water. This type of instillation limits the use of offshore wind turbine generators due to a rapid increase in the depth of the oceans as a distance from land is increased. In other words, use of offshore wind turbine generators is typically limited to water depths of about twenty-five meters or less, which limits offshore wind turbine use to locations near the shore. Wind turbine generators that float in the water are known, however, stability issues may limit their use and/or the efficiency of such wind turbine generators.